Page:Affecting history of an inn-keeper in Normandy.pdf/16

(16) Among the many who paid their addreſſes to this very accompliſhed young lady, was, a gentleman who, to an agreeable appearance, added the more engaging qualifications of the mind. He, though perhaps inferior in point of fortune to almoſt every one of her admirers, gained her intire affection, and they agreed by mutual promiſes, to be one another's for life.

A father frequently is not the firſt perſon who is acquainted with ſuch attachments in his family. This was alſo the caſe with Roſara's; her other relations were the perſons who firſt gave him this piece of information, endeavouring, at the ſame time, as much as poſſible, to exaggerate every circumſtance to the prejudice of Philander, and inſiſting, in the moſt carneſt manner, upon his doing every thing in his power to put a ſtop to their further connections. This piece of intelligence ſtartled him greatly; and when we conſider his own diſpoſition, as noticed above, it is no hard matter to conceive how much he was irritated in conſequence of it.

Roſara was informed of what had happened between her father and friends, before her next interview with Philander. She accordingly, with an aching heart, told him the circumſtance, adding, that ſhe underſtood her father was in a terrible rage, and was determined to ſtop any further